Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a vehicle object detection system. More specifically, the present invention relates to an object detection system that detects the heights of objects as the vehicle approaches the objects.
Background Information
Many vehicles are provided with video cameras that are aimed at areas adjacent to respective sides of the vehicle and are employed during maneuvers such as, for example, parking and/or backing up. Such cameras are angled downward such that they do not provide a vehicle operator with an accurate sense of the actual height of objects within the camera's field of view, but rather provide visual object contact confirmation. Some objects that are visible to the camera can appear to have a very small vertical dimension (i.e., low height). Consequently, vehicles with a low clearance where, for example, a lower surface of a spoiler or lower surface of a bumper fascia is fairly close to the ground, sometimes get scratched by objects that appear small to the camera but are high enough to contact underside sections and underside surfaces of the vehicle.